Unfortunately for Anna, we had no choice but to hire a manual car for our trip into the Apuane Alps. She was shitting herself at the thought of driving through the mountains, but she did a great job.
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| the tiny town of Levigliano, at the foot of one of the marble caves |
Thankfully we had google maps, otherwise we may never have gotten there. It was an amazing place situated right on the edge of a mountain, overlooking the other mountains across the valley and hilltop villages below.
The placed was owned and run by a really nice family and they hardly spoke a word of English. Lucky Anna was on board to talk to the Papa and find out all about the area and what sights we should see for the weekend ahead.
Our room was awesome. Looking out our bathroom window (below), we could see across the gardens of our farm, plus up towards Mt. Altissimo (1,589m) which is the exact mountain where Michelangelo got his marble block to carve out the statue of David!
Although our family offered to cook us a beautiful home cooked meal we decided to go back into Pietrasanta for dinner, and aren't we so happy we did! The place had the most incredible vibe about it.
The only way to describe Pietrasanta is like the Tuscan version of Sorrento or Portsea, so cosmopolitan. The historic heart of the town is car free, loaded with tiny art galleries, boutique fashion stores and many great restaurants.
After having a tasty meal, we joined in the hundreds of Itaians walking up and down the main street until well after midnight.
The most interesting thing about this place was the Italians themselves - It was a serious case of dress to impress. High heels, make-up, jewellery, tanned skin, fake breasts, you name it, it was unbelievable, even the little kids were decked out in Ralph Lauren etc. We walked around for a good few hours and it was so hard not to stare art all the good looking girls/boys/men/women/milf's/dilf's and even a few gilt's! The funny thing was, I think they were all staring at us in our thongs!
The next morning we were up early and ready for a huge day. We had a great breakfast, with the clear highlight being the toast with the family's own home-made honey.
First cab off the rank was the "Grotto dell'Antro del Corchia" at an altitude of 860m.
We entered this huge hole in the mountain and immediately were struck by the 7.6 degrees temperature which remains constant all year round.
The tour lasted 2 hours and covered 1,978m of walkways through amazing caves of stalagmites and stalactites.
The precipitation of carbonate minerals was still active and many times throughout the tour we were pattered with drops hitting us in the face and dirtying our clothes!
We were pretty over the tour by the end of it, bloody cold and seriously damn hungry. All we could find were fondues (twisties) and went through a fair few packets before the bus arrived to drop us back down at our car.
We then set off for our next destination, Carrara. Along the way we noticed cherry trees lining the road and stopped to check if they were ripe. They were ripe all right and pretty nice!
A relentless succession of hairpin turns, blindingly unlit tunnels hewn through rock and breathtaking aerial vistas of the marble quarries, the drive to Carrara was simply incredible.
At one point I was certain that I had seen the road somewhere before and we were later told that the first scene in James Bond: Quantum of Solace where Bond is being chased in his Aston Martin was filmed on the same road.
By the early afternoon we were starving so we pulled into some sort of mountain hotel for a quick bite to eat. This place turned out to be the scene of the biggest fucking disaster of all time.
We ordered two panini's with ham, cheese and tomato and 10 minutes later were presented with a few plates with the biggest, thickest pieces of bread you have ever seen, a plate of ham, a plate of sliced up cheese and another plate with one big tomato on it. The dickhead expected us to make our own panini's ourselves. Once we got over this and then the fact that it all tasted like shit, we thought let's just pay and get out of here. 21 euros the whole thing cost us!!!!!!
4 euro each for the bread and ham, 3.50 euro each for the slice of cheese, 3 euro for the tomato and 3 euro for the can of coke.
I was in so much shock that I just forked out the money and left. I wish I had kicked up a fuss about it, but by the time it had sunk in what had happened, it was too late. So all I could do was kick the bin over out the front haha.
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| Anna in disbelief as we left this dump |
First time visitors would assume the snowy white mountain peaks forming Carrara's backdrop are capped with snow. In fact, the white is 2,000 hectares of marble gougers out of the foothills of the Apuane Alps in fast quarries that have been worked since Roman times.
Zipping down a dank, wet, unlit tunnel in a dusty white minibus, it is surreal. 5 minutes later, we are told to get out. We are almost 1,000m high and 600m deep into the 1,400m high mountain of pure marble, we are at "Cava de Marmo".
We are told to put helmets on quick smart and warned that the temperature will not rise above 12 degrees. It was foggy, dirty and slippery under foot, but we didn't care, it was so exciting to be where we were, completely surrounded by marble on every floor, wall and ceiling.
We learnt about the mechanical diamond cutting chains that slice through the marble like butter, it was hard to imagine!
Rough-cut blocks, several metres long and almost as wide are strewn about the place like toy bricks and there are marble columns propping up the 15m high ceiling. The place is bigger than a football field!
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| the current market price for a block of marble this size is around 75,000 - 100,000 euro |
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| "marble cathedral" |
After a long day, we headed home for a very short rest, showered and then went back into Pietrasanta for another fantastic meal and plenty of people watching.
I will never forget the old couple next to us at the table (not parents old, but seriously old, like 70-80). The woman was decked out in the most hardcore jewellery on her ears and fingers I have ever seen. She must have had on 100's of thousands of euro worth of sparkle, it was crazy. Pity she was horribly ugly.
The next morning we had another great breakfast of crepes with home made honey, toast etc etc and then headed off for Florence. Instead of driving back via the coast, we went via the valley town of Castelnuovo di Garfagnana and the hill-top town of Barga, the scenery along the way was stunning.
We arrived back in Florence and dropped our car off after searching and searching and searching for a fuel station to fill her up. We were both on shitty moods and this was capped off after I dropped the keys back in the box of the car hire company before realising that our bags were still in the car. Molto stupido retardo!!!!
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